A degree too expensive

ENAR

As the new batch of students begin classes at Lebanon’s universities and families prepare to pay painfully high — and seemingly rising — tuition fees, it is time for a provocative question: does higher education have to cost so much? Before coming to the American University of Beirut, I spent a few years in Moscow building the foundation of a new business school, the Moscow School of Management (MSM).  It was founded by a group of private entrepreneurs who felt that existing business schools no longer catered to the market needs, especially not the ones they had experienced in the tumultuous aftermath of the collapse of the former Soviet Union. With the emergence of new and transition economies in Russia and countries such as China, India, and Brazil (the “BRICs”), the need was growing for entrepreneurial talent that could lead in difficult, uncertain and unstructured environments. A key focus of